Hey there, data nerds and AI enthusiasts! Snowflake Inc. just dropped some serious AI enhancements to its cloud data platform at the annual BUILD developer conference.
Snowflake Intelligence is about to enter private preview, and it’s ready to help you get the most out of your data. Business users can now chat with their data using natural language and create “data agents” to extract insights and take action across various tools and apps.
Snowflake Intelligence connects with third-party tools like databases, SharePoint, Salesforce CRM, Slack, and Google Workspace. It brings together structured and unstructured data under a single governance layer, so you can access and analyze data without the need for custom coding.
“For enterprises, AI hallucinations are simply unacceptable. Today’s organizations require accurate, trustworthy AI in order to drive effective decision-making, and this starts with access to high-quality data from diverse sources to power AI models.” said Baris Gultekin, Head of AI at Snowflake.
Snowflake’s Cortex AI, a fully managed AI development service, has received a suite of generative AI enhancements. These updates allow developers to create conversational applications within Snowflake, leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs) for optimized task execution.
Notable features include:
- Cortex Chat API: Integrates structured and unstructured data into unified REST API calls.
- Multimodal LLM support: Enhances response quality.
- Knowledge base connectors: Expedites data ingestion (e.g., Snowflake Connector for SharePoint).
- Cortex Knowledge Extensions: Enables third-party data integration for generative AI use cases.
- AI Observability for LLM applications: Monitors generative AI applications for relevance, latency, and compliance.
- Cortex Analyst improvements: Simplifies data analysis with advanced joins, multi-turn conversations, and Cortex Search integration.
Unistore is a new approach that unifies transactional and analytical data within a single platform. Powered by Hybrid Tables, Unistore simplifies data architectures while maintaining consistent security and governance.
Hybrid Tables optimize query performance based on the nature of the query, allowing users to maintain application and workflow states in real-time.
Snowflake has introduced several security enhancements, including a leaked password monitoring feature in the managed Horizon Catalog. The system alerts customers if stolen credentials matching those used in Snowflake are detected on the dark web.
The Snowflake Trust Center now includes a Threat Intelligence Scanner Package that identifies risky users and suggests risk mitigation strategies.
On the collaboration side, the Internal Marketplace enables users to discover data, applications, and AI products from other teams and business units within their organizations while preventing unintended external sharing.
Snowflake’s AI advancements highlight the company’s commitment to empowering enterprises with tools for harnessing the power of data and AI. As the data ecosystem evolves, Snowflake continues to drive innovation in data management and AI-driven decision-making.
